A Man who Changed a Nation: Ben Franklin’s Postal Service

By Evan Cohen

Objective:

• Students should be able to list at least 2 changes Ben Franklin made to the U.S. postal system

Postal Service before Franklin

• 1639 was the first year that any note of a postal system would arise in the united states.

• The main overseas post office was located at Richard Fairbanks’ Tavern.

Postal service before Franklin

• It would take as much as 14 days for a letter to travel as little as 2 close by cities

• It would take as long as several months for overseas

• Most of the time letters would not reach their overseas destination.

• Writers would make as much as much as five copies of a letter to guarantee it would reach the destination

Postal Service Before Franklin Cont’d

• Writers would use several ships so their letter would reach their destination

• Routes for letters to travel were not well thought-out

• Postmen were friends, slaves, sailors or other travelers.

• There were no actual post offices

Ben Franklin’s changes

• In 1737 a man by the name of Benjamin Franklin who had the role as Postmaster of Philadelphia began to make much needed improvements.

• He started with creating direct routes between each colony

Ben Franklin’s changes Cont’d

• To make the delivery extra fast between the two major cities of New York and Philadelphia he made the mail wagon travel through the night as well as the day.

• Also, he created the first postal rate system to be used by most postal services which list the shipping charge via weight

Outcome of Franklin’s changes

• Franklin’s changes are a huge success

• Not only letters but newspapers such as Ben Franklin’s Pennsylvania gazette allowing much more people to be up to date with the news

• Earned him the title of “Father of the U.S. Postal System”

• He is the symbol of our postal service

Aiding the Patriot Cause

• Without these improvements to the postal system many important messages may not have been received such as:

• Ben Franklin’s Political “Join or Die” cartoon

• Messages referring to taxes in Boston

Nationalism

• This project relates to the theme of nationalism because without the changes to the postal system many messages referring to Patriot cause may not have been received causing the revolution to be less powerful